NATO to send missiles to Turkey-Syria border

Patriot anti-missile batteries sit at the Diyarbakir military airport in south-eastern Turkey in 2003.

AFP: Mehdi Fedouach, file photo

NATO warned Syria's president Bashar al-Assad not to use chemical weapons as it approved the deployment of Patriot interceptor missile batteries on the border of neighbouring Turkey.

The warning from NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen came as US government sources said Washington had information Syria was making what could be seen as preparations to use its chemical arsenal.

Syrian state media said a rebel mortar attack on a school had killed 28 students and a teacher.

International concern over Syria's intentions has been heightened by reports that its chemical weapons have been moved and could be prepared for use.

Will the US step in?

The United States could try to secure Syria's chemical arsenal by sending in special forces and staging bombing raids, but any military action would be high-risk with a chance that weapons might fall into the wrong hands, experts and former officials say.

"The possible use of chemical weapons would be completely unacceptable for the whole international community and if anybody resorts to these terrible weapons I would expect an immediate reaction from the international community," Mr Rasmussen told reporters at the start of a meeting of alliance foreign ministers in Brussels.

The chemical threat made it urgent for the alliance to send Patriot anti-missile missiles to Turkey, he said, adding: "We say to anyone who would want to attack Turkey - don't even think about it."

The French Foreign Ministry referred to "possible movements on military bases storing chemical weapons in Syria" and said the international community would react if the weapons were used.

On Monday US president Barack Obama told Mr Assad not to use chemical weapons, without saying how the United States might respond.

The Foreign Ministry in Damascus said it would never use such weapons against Syrians.

The US has collected what has been described as highly classified intelligence information demonstrating that Syria is making what could be construed as preparations to use elements of its extensive chemical weapons arsenal, two US government sources briefed on the issue told the Reuters news agency.

One of the sources said that there was no question that the US "intelligence community" had received information pointing to "preparations" underway in Syria related to chemical weapons. The source declined to specify what kind of preparations had been reported, or how close the intelligence indicated the Syrians were to deploying or even using the weapons.

Western military experts say Syria has four suspected chemical weapons sites, and it can produce chemical weapons agents including mustard gas and sarin, and possibly also VX nerve agent.

The CIA has estimated that Syria possesses several hundred litres of chemical weapons and produces hundreds of tonnes of agents annually.

Patriots: The 'hit-to-kill' star missiles of the US armoury

Patriot missiles are an anti-ballistic defence system developed by Lockheed Martin.